CanJam Camp!

Last week was spent with a group of Canadian volunteers in inner city Kingston.  This group of Canadian college students have been traveling to Kingston for CanJam Camp for several years.  We decided that it would be a great experience to spend a week volunteering in the inner city.  It turned out to be an interesting and unique experience.  

The camp focused on the children from ages 3 to 18.  The Canadians led the camp and we were there only as support.  We soon found out that we were needed for more than just support.  The camp turned out to be unorganized and understaffed.  One other volunteer, Tracy, and I were asked to lead at group of 9-11 year olds.  I was slightly nervous in the beginning but ended up pleasantly surprised at how well our group worked together.  Our group needed to decide on a performance for the final day of activities.  Tracy and I sat down with no clue as to what the performance would be.  So, we asked the children.  We asked what they could do well.  They agreed that a dance would be a good idea.  So then we asked them what type of dance they'd like to perform.  They all had blank stares until someone mentioned Michael Jackson.  He didn't need to say any more because all the children gave obvious approval as they all started to sing MJ songs.  We all broke into an MJ memorial session as Tracy and I offered our own recollections of his greatest hits.  We all started to practice the essential MJ dance moves.  Everyone was laughing and clearly excited about the prospect of an MJ Tribute as our performance.  

The next day I brought in my ipod and we sampled MJ hits.  We all agreed on performing a mix of Thriller and Beat It.  We decided we would begin with Thriller and end with Beat It.  We then proceeded to spend the morning practicing our moves to both songs.  Then performance day came and we had rehearsed several times.  We began with the children howling as the beginning of Thriller was played.  They came out from behind the fence with their zombie dance.  They proceeded to make their entrance and then we transitioned into Beat It.  We had practiced several steps a few days before and I was worried that they may forget them.  My worries were soon overcome as I watched my group of 9-11 olds rock out their MJ Tribute on stage.  They were so awesome and everyone loved the performance!  Tracy and I were so proud of them and they were so happy with their performance.  It was so great to see these children, who besides their little differences and disputes, came together to create an awesome collaborative effort.  They were great!!

It was the perfect ending to an unorganized and understaffed week long camp :)

Peace and Love,

Matthew